Days Once Lived
by AtlantaNova67
Summary: We all know how the Doctor and Clara felt when they faced the parasite at the Rings of Akhaten, but what did the parasite feel? A one-shot, from the Beast's Point of View.


~oO0Oo~

**The Rings of Akhaten**

The Beast was alone. Lulled to sleep by the fields of rocks that kept it in place by their constant circular rhythm; by the song of children of the generations. And then the singing stopped and a small child, the purest of souls stood in its place. One shining face, in a sea of ordinary people.

It awoke.

Starving; craving the song of a beautiful soul.

Shaken out of its slumber, it found instead a puny human, barely beginning life, straining to be set free. Her life is made up of days to come and not enough of days of the past and it refuses to use its energy to feed off her.

And then the Beast gets distracted, because it hears the faintest hint of something powerful. Not even the pure soul can compare. So it lets the puny human and the pure soul escape and it breathes in the powerful perfume of a life lived to the brink; a life dripping in pent up memories.

The man taunts it, daring it to take his memoires, as if it wouldn't be able to hold the days of one man.

But after the first taste, the Beast knows better. This is a man that holds civilizations worth of days.

Golden tendrils sought out the man to leech his dreams; sinking deep within to find a source of rich memories. Memories so intense, powered by the emotions of two hearts, that the Beast can't help but sink deeper into the mire of images and feast.

It gorges itself. The Beast swallows the pain of loss- granddaughters long gone, companions never seen, armies fought and won. It drinks in the beginning of many lost loves and old hopes and the best of memories. And just when it began to feel strong again, after many years of deep slumber, it choked.

It choked on the sorrow. It was too much. Entire worlds gone; consumed in a fury of red and orange. The oldest of friends dying with too much potential left. Family. Friends. Children… The Beast choked on it all. Never had it found such a plentiful source of memories. For a moment the Beast felt its own fear. The fear of being lost in this man's memories; drowning in sorrows just as much as the man was.

And then out of the darkness came the light. Pink and yellow and brilliant smiles. Two sets of fiery red hair and sassy struts. The Beast found strength, just like the man before him had.

The Beast came to the end of days within the man, so with one last tug it drew in the last of the pain and joy and cast the Timelord off and swallowed down the last of its meal.

The Beast came back with a fury it'd never possessed. It had never found someone who held so much within and it searched for someone else who could come close. It craved another Timelord.

But instead came the tiny human. She offered something precious; something that could have been the ruination of all time, if misplaced. She held out her gift in trembling hands, the tears of loss streaming down her face as the Beast reached out and tasted.

It was like nothing it'd ever consumed before.

A whisper. A rustle. Leaves brushing concrete. The crunching of snow beneath footsteps. The first drop of rain hitting skin.

With all his mighty strength, the Beast, in a moment's time, heard all the conversations ever spoke.

Hot tea. Chocolate. That first bite of food after a long day. One stolen bite of an ice cream cone, that first tentative taste of a new food.

It tasted the food of a thousand worlds and hundreds of meals to come.

Fire. Silk. Falling into the soft covers of a bed. Sinking into a cool pool on a hot day, the hard shock of a fall.

It lived all the memories of people that never were.

A Sunset. A sky. An eternity of stars in the night. The grains of sand piled on the sea shore, the most precious jewel.

It saw an indefinite amount of beauty and lived a world through the eyes of the lost.

Cinnamon. Cookies. Grandmother baking. Candles lit in the dark, roses after a rain.

It breathed in the smells of a century in the making.

Heartache. Joy. The first glance at real love. A mother's kiss after a hard fall, a long laugh with the best of friends.

It felt the love and loss of people that were never meant to live; it laughed with people that never existed.

And the Beast knew, as it drew its closing breaths and absorbed an eternity, that it had lived the days that could have been but never were.

It ate an entire future that never got lived.

The two souls, one powerful enough to cripple the Beast, and one so much more insignificant and yet able to fell the Beast, stood at the edge of the rings. And they didn't need words, as they watched the Beast fade into nothing. They both knew the truth.

Infinite is far more powerful then what has been.

Infinite's tumble throughout space. They circle worlds, shrouding them in could-have-been's and what if's and why not's.

They exist. They breathe. Every possibility; an infinite amount of could-have-been's. All of them existing in a world all of their own. And as hungry as the Beast was, it couldn't eat the entire universe and all its decisions. It couldn't fathom the pain of one man. It couldn't contain the happiness brought about by one leaf.

The Doctor gave his memories. The most treasured gift he could have given was memories of things that once were; people that once lived.

And Clara gave a promise. The promise that no matter what, somewhere in all the mulitverses, there was a hope for something so much better.

And so on that day, the Beast died, because two souls sacrificed the most valuable items in their possession.

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_Let me know what you think by reviewing. ALLONS-Y!_


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